HOOVER, Ala. — Coaches from around the league spent much of Monday’s pre-Southeastern Conference Tournament teleconference heaping praise on A.J. Reed.They called him the clear-cut favorite for national player of the year awards. They gushed over his power at the plate. They marveled at his excellence on the mound.Anyone who listened and had not seen the junior lefthander in action surely expected a show with Reed set to pitch UK’s postseason opener on Tuesday. What they got instead was a workmanlike effort. Reed was far from dominant against Alabama after starting on Thursday at Georgia, but the result was just the same as in any of Reed’s headline-grabbing performances this season: a win for Kentucky and a win for Reed.”He’s on four days’ rest, he goes 92 pitches and he clearly didn’t have his best stuff, but he competed really well,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said.UK’s two-way star battled through five innings pitched, with the Crimson Tide reaching base eight times. Only once did Reed retire the side in order, but only once did Alabama cross the plate against him. “I could definitely feel that I was on short rest,” Reed said. “I definitely got tired more quickly that I normally would on a full week. I was just going out there planning on throwing up zeroes for five or six innings and hopefully we would have a lead at that time.”UK (33-22) had that lead and kept it en route to a 7-1 victory over Alabama (34-22).Reed repeatedly worked around trouble to pick up his 11th win, most notably in the second through fourth innings.In the second, Alabama loaded the bases with one out after a walk, a single and an error by UK first baseman Thomas Bernal. Reed, however, coaxed a harmless fly ball to right from Daniel Cucjen and an inning-ending groundout from Crimson Tide leadoff man Mikey White. In the process, he protected a 2-0 lead UK built in the top half of the frame on a sacrifice fly by Matt Reida and run-scoring fielder’s choice off the bat of Austin Cousino.The following inning, Alabama seemed to have a beat on Reed. Georgie Salem singled to right and Wade Wass scored him two batters later with a double into the gap in left-center. Two groundball outs with a walk sandwiched in between ended the threat.”The key was those two innings right there because they had guys left on all over the place when it’s all said and done they got one run in,” Henderson said.In the fourth, Reed allowed back-to-back one-out singles before coaxing an inning-ending double play.”I think it was just going out there and making pitches,” Reed said. “They got some runners on, but just keep the ball down and keep attacking hitters and making a pitch when you need to.”Reed’s numbers at the dish — 1-for-3 with and two walks — weren’t eye-popping considering he’s the nation’s home-run leader, but he did smash two balls deep into right-center in cavernous Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The first was caught and the second bounced off the wall for a double.”A.J.’s the best player in the country and that’s pretty well-established,” Henderson said.When Henderson lifted Reed before the sixth inning, he called on first-year junior-college transfer Andrew Nelson. The junior responded and picked up his first save, tossing four shutout innings and allowing two hits and no walks.”I think I was effective today because I did a good job of getting on top of the ball, on top of the fastball and throwing it down,” Nelson said. “I did a good job of letting the ball sink.”By doing so, Nelson positioned his team ideally for the rest of the week. UK advances to face top-seeded Florida in the double-elimination portion of the tournament on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. ET with a stable of arms as fresh as Henderson could have hoped for.”Anytime you can split a game up, you get five out of the starter and you can finish it with one guy out of the pen, it’s a tremendous lift,” Henderson said. “But we’ll have to wait and see just how much it helps us tomorrow.”